Traffic monitoring and reporting system and method

Abstract

A system and method for monitoring vehicle traffic and collecting data indicative of pedestrian right of way violations by vehicles is provided. The system comprises memory and logic for monitoring traffic intersections and recording evidence indicating that vehicles have violated pedestrian right of way. Two sensor modalities collecting video data and radar data of the intersection under observation are employed in one embodiment of the system. The violation evidence can be accessed remotely by a traffic official for issuing of traffic citations.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. A system, comprising:
 a video imaging sensor configured to record video data indicative of possible pedestrians and vehicles in an area under observation; 
 a radar device configured to record radar data indicative of possible pedestrians and vehicles in an area under observation; and 
 a sensor control device configured to segment and classify the radar and video data and correlate classified radar objects with classified video objects to identify correlated objects of interest, the sensor control device comprising logic configured to search classified video objects for correlating classified radar objects, record a likeness of the modalities for a property, and determine a likelihood of correlation between the modalities, 
 the sensor control device further configured to track the correlated objects to identify tracked pedestrians and vehicles, 
 the sensor control device further configured to receive and store in the memory traffic rules data indicative of traffic laws for the area under observation, 
 the sensor control device further configured to process the tracked pedestrians and vehicles with the traffic rules data to generate and store in the memory data indicative of alleged traffic violations. 
 
     
     
       2. The system of  claim 1 , wherein the logic configured to determine the likelihood of correlation between the modalities is further configured to compute a temporal likeness score for each correlated object. 
     
     
       3. The system of  claim 2 , wherein the logic configured to determine the likelihood of correlation of the modalities is further configured to assign a confidence value for each object based upon the temporal likeness score. 
     
     
       4. The system of  claim 1 , wherein the sensor control device is further configured to receive and store in memory traffic signal state data indicative of the state of a vehicle traffic signal corresponding to activity of the tracked radar and video objects. 
     
     
       5. The system of  claim 4 , the traffic signal state data further comprises data indicative of the state of a pedestrian crosswalk signal. 
     
     
       6. The system of  claim 1 , wherein the area under observation includes one or more pedestrian crosswalks. 
     
     
       7. A method of recording evidence of suspected traffic violations, the method comprising:
 receiving raw video data from one or more video cameras collecting video data of an area under observation; 
 processing the raw video data to form packetized video data; 
 spatially segmenting the packetized video data and classifying video objects of interest; 
 receiving raw radar data from one or more radar sensors collecting radar data of the area under observation; 
 spatially segmenting the raw radar data and classifying radar objects of interest; 
 correlating the radar and video objects of interest by searching classified video objects for correlating classified radar objects, recording a likeness of the modalities for a property, and determining a likelihood of correlation between the modalities, 
 tracking the correlated objects of interest; 
 receiving traffic rules data indicative of traffic laws; 
 applying the traffic rules data to the correlated objects of interest and recording alleged violation data. 
 
     
     
       8. The method of  claim 7  wherein the correlating step comprising determining a likelihood of correlation between the modalities further comprises computing a temporal likeness score for each correlated object. 
     
     
       9. The method of  claim 7 , wherein the correlating step comprising determining a likelihood of correlation between the modalities further comprises assigning a confidence value for each object based upon the temporal likeness score. 
     
     
       10. The method of  claim 7  further comprising receiving traffic signal state data from a vehicle traffic signal and processing the traffic signal state data with the traffic rules to record alleged violation data. 
     
     
       11. The method of  claim 10 , wherein the traffic signal state data comprises data indicative of the state of a vehicle traffic signal. 
     
     
       12. The method of  claim 11 , wherein the traffic signal state data further comprises data indicative of the state of a pedestrian crosswalk signal. 
     
     
       13. The method of  claim 7 , further comprising remotely accessing the alleged violation data and generating traffic citations. 
     
     
       14. A method of recording evidence of suspected traffic violations by vehicles, the method comprising:
 receiving raw video data from one or more video cameras collecting video data of an area under observation; 
 processing the raw video data to form packetized video data; 
 spatially segmenting the packetized video data and classifying video objects of interest; 
 receiving raw radar data from one or more radar sensors; 
 collecting radar data of the area under observation; 
 spatially segmenting the raw radar data and classifying radar objects of interest; 
 correlating the radar and video objects of interest, 
 tracking the correlated objects of interest by predicting position data of prior known objects, updating position data for prior known objects based upon current observed objects, adding position data for new objects, and discarding position data for stale objects; 
 receiving traffic rules data indicative of traffic laws; and 
 applying the traffic rules data to the correlated objects of interest and recording alleged violation data. 
 
     
     
       15. The method of  claim 14 , further comprising remotely accessing the alleged violation data and generating traffic citations. 
     
     
       16. The method of  claim 14 , wherein the tracking step of predicting position data of prior known objects comprises predicting state vectors of prior observed objects. 
     
     
       17. The method of  claim 14 , wherein the tracking step of updating position data for prior known objects based upon current observed objects comprises updating state vectors for prior known objects based upon current state vectors. 
     
     
       18. The method of  claim 14 , wherein the tracking step of adding position data for new objects comprises adding state vectors for new objects. 
     
     
       19. The method of  claim 14 , wherein the tracking step of discarding position data for stale objects comprises discarding state vectors for objects that have not been observed over a plurality of sets of data over time.